Translations

from the Illustrated Tales of Regent Hideyoshi

In the Beginning1-1-1 How Hideyoshi Was Born1-1-2 How Hideyoshi Met Koroku1-1-3 How Koroku Tested Hideyoshi1-1-4 How Hideyoshi Met Matsushita Yukitsuna

from the Senjūshō

5:3 About Naiki Yasutane5:4 Sojō Yōen5:5 Kakuson and the Monk With a Poem About Rattles5:6 The Lady of the Middle Counselor5:10 A Man of Ōmi Lost His Son and Left Secular Life5:11 About a Nun of Eguchi9:8 Courtesan of Eguchi9:10 A Reunion at the Hasedera Temple

from the works of Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The Christ of NankingOginOshino

from the Chirizuka Monogatari

1:1 How a Poem of Lord Jōtokuin Shaded the Burning Sun2:6 Selfless Lord Amako Tsunehisa3:4 About the Legends of Mount Ômine4:1 About Extraordinary Tales of Master Kobo, Salt, Chikami, Reed and Other Things4:4 Witty Tales of Japan and India5:4 Lord Hosokawa's Secret Plot5:9 Lord Moronao's Amorous Affairs6:5 Priest Myosen and Masashige

5:5 Kakuson and the Monk With a Poem About Rattles1

from the Senjūshō

translated by Yoshiko Dykstra

The monk and the sparrows.

Some time ago, a poor monk was wandering around in Suruga province.2 He was living in a crude hut in Mt Fuji. Wearing straw mats, eating fish and birds, he appeared like a crazy man, constantly mumbling something meaningless. But he seemed to have a good mind and sometimes said something intelligible.

Once when the hijiri Kakuson3 passed through Narumikata4 on his way to the eastern provinces, the monk came to him and begged for alms. Impressed by his extraordinary appearance, Kakuson asked him to sit across from him, and with no hesitation the monk sat and talked with him. Kakuson’s attendants and the villagers were also impressed by his unusual appearance. After a while, Kakuson asked the monk, “Will you tell me a verse from a Dharma text?”

Slightly smiling, the monk recited:

Naruko o ba,

Onoga hakaze ni

Yurugashite

Kokoro toki hagu

Murasuzume kana

Disturbed by the sound

Of rattles

Caused by the wind,

And blown by flapping their wings…

The common sparrows!

After reciting the poem, the monk left. Disappointed, Kakuson sent people to look for him, but in vain.

Indeed, just as the ignorant sparrows were disturbed by the sound of the rattles, people are attached to this and that, believing that their minds and objects are separate, and because of the objects [to which they are attached], their minds are greatly disturbed. The poem is based upon the yuishiki5 concept of consciousness-only, and sounded very noble.

No one knew anything about the monk’s moments. I wonder how well he observed the ideal of yuishiki by living deep in a deep mountain, for a firm faith merits a reward. Unable to hide his virtues, he might well have appeared in other remote areas. He was truly an interesting person.

~~~ The End ~~~

©2009 by Yoshiko Dykstra

1A reference to a naruko, a rattle or clapper made with bells, which are often set up to scare birds from rice paddies.

2Present-day Shizuoka prefecture.

3Unidentified.

4Present-day the area of Narumi-cho, Midori-ku, Nagoya.

5A major teaching of the Hossō Sect, propagating the idea that everything is caused by a person’s consciousness only, yuishiki. Zen meditation is related to the concept.